


i'll walk away a fool or a king

by fireflyslove



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Endgame fix it, Gen, Handwavery, Happy Thor (Marvel), Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Sad Thor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 02:37:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19122868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireflyslove/pseuds/fireflyslove
Summary: Teamwork makes the dream work.orThanos lied and Carol came up with a better solution to bring everyone back.





	i'll walk away a fool or a king

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! It's the Endgame fix it I've been meaning to write for the last six weeks!
> 
> Based loosely on the background of my two Thor/Carol fics, but those aren't necessary for this one. 
> 
> Eventually I might get around to what Thor was doing during the time jump in this fic.
> 
> Title from Billy Joel's A Matter Of Trust

Thanos’ head rolled across the floor even as Stormbreaker finished its swing. Thor turned and left, heading out into the bright sun. He did not look back. 

-

_ One Year Later _

“He lied.”

The words shot across Thor’s consciousness before he even registered someone else’s presence. He whirled about, hand already reaching for Stormbreaker. His fingers closed around its handle when he took in Carol Danvers’ face. 

“What?” he said. He didn’t have to ask how she had found him, she had always had some sort of preternatural ability to ask just the right person to get her information. 

“Thanos. He lied,” she repeated. 

“About what?” 

In lieu of an answer, she held up her hand. Between each of her fingers, resting against her bare skin, lay an Infinity Stone. 

“How?” Thor asked, stepping forward.

“That’s a rather… complicated story,” Carol said. She shook her hand, and the Stones disappeared. “And more to the point, we’re still missing the Power Stone.”

“We?” Thor asked.

“The Avengers. Apparently I’m an Avenger now,” she said with a shrug. “I’m out here looking for it, and I found you instead. I don’t suppose you’ve seen it lying around?”

“No,” Thor said. 

“Too bad,” Carol said. “Would you perhaps be interested in coming back to Earth for a time? We could use some help.”

“Always with the help,” Thor muttered. 

“You can say no,” Carol said. “It was a question, not a command.”

Thor wanted to say no, he  _ should _ say no. But no, that wasn’t in his nature. 

“Fine,” he said. 

“Excellent,” Carol said. 

Two days later, Thor found himself in the Avengers’ compound in New York. Much had changed since his last time on Earth, settling what remained of the Asgardians in Norway. He had abdicated his throne then, leaving Valkyrie in charge. She would make a better king than he, anyway. All he had brought was pain and destruction. 

The Avengers, and someone had brought even Clint Barton here, which Thor gathered wasn’t an easy feat, were cagey. A gauntlet, a right handed one, made of red metal, lay on the table in a conference room. Five of the six Infinity Stones lay in the chassis, and the sixth, the Space Stone, glowed blue on the table next to it. Carol had showed up to breakfast with it in her hand, claiming it had appeared on her nightstand sometime during the night. 

Thor was skeptical, but he wasn’t about to argue with one of the most powerful beings in the universe. 

“So now what?” Natasha asked. 

“Now, we just have to reverse the last year,” Carol said. 

“And you want to do that how?” Stark asked.

“The same way Thanos did,” Carol said. “Snap.”

“Using the Gauntlet almost killed Thanos,” Bruce said. “How do you expect one of us to handle it?”

“I don’t,” Carol said. “A single Infinity Stone is a lot for a single person to handle, trying has killed more than one person, but it  _ can  _ be done.”

“I once watched the Tesseract melt someone’s face off,” Steve noted mildly. 

“It doesn’t always go like that,” Carol said. “Sometimes it can be harnessed. You all know that, right?”

Most of the heads in the room shook.

Carol held up a glowing hand. “Didn’t any of you wonder how a human could do this?” 

“Ma’am,” Clint said. “We generally don’t go asking why people from space can help us.”

Thor snorted. They had certainly asked  _ him _ . 

“I absorbed the force of a Space Stone explosion,” Carol explained. “And your friend Wanda. She was a human incarnation of the Mind Stone.”

“Well that certainly explains some things,” Natasha said, leaning back. “But not how you expect us to use the Gauntlet.”

“That’s just it,” Carol said. “ _ Us _ .”

“All of us?” 

“We did it once,” a voice said from the door. 

Rocket crossed the room and hopped up onto the table, Nebula trailing behind him. 

“Quill was only half human, but holding the Power Stone nearly killed him. But with four of us, we were able to keep it from Ronan,” he said. 

“There are six of them,” Nebula said, idly twirling a knife. “That’s a bit more than one. And they’re far more powerful together than they were apart.”

“But there’s more than six of us,” Carol said. “And some of us are more, ah, robust than others.”

Thor snorted. “It would probably kill one of us alone, even you or me.”

“But with all of us together, the damage will be minimized,” Steve said. 

“Exactly,” Carol said. “But it will take a singular focus, not one mind can deviate or it will fail, and it will be catastrophic.”

“That’s a rousing speech,” Stark said.

Carol rolled her eyes. “I’m the wrong Captain if you want rousing speeches,” she said.

Steve choked on a laugh. 

“What exactly are we going to do?” Stark said. “Do you want to turn back time?” 

“No,” Carol said. “We’ve already eliminated the threat of Thanos and his minions in this time.”

“You want to bring everyone and everything that was banished to the Soul Plane back to here and now,” Thor said.

“Exactly.”

“It will create chaos,” Natasha said. “But chaos we can handle.” 

“Return what was lost,” Carol said. “Focus on those four words.”

“Who’s going to wear the glove?” Bruce asked.

“That’s not a question I can answer for someone,” Carol said. “We’re going to have to decide that together.”

They spent the next hour going in circles, when suddenly, Bruce’s skin rippled with green.

“We must do it,” Hulk said. Only, no, it wasn’t Hulk, it was someone between Bruce and Hulk. 

Natasha closed her eyes. “He’s right,” she said. “None of the rest of us can handle it physically.”

Thor wanted to argue… but they were right.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Steve asked. 

They stood in a circle, hands clasped, like they were going to summon something in a cheesy Earth movie. Thor stood to one side of Bruce-Hulk, holding his left hand, while Carol stood on his other, hand around his forearm just below the gauntlet. The circle, Natasha, Steve, Rhodey, Stark, Nebula, Rocket, Clint, Thor, Bruce-Hulk, Carol. They each took a deep breath, and repeated the mantra: Return what was lost. 

It was a chant that grew in strength until the room echoed with their joined voices. 

Thor could feel the tension in the air growing, and then Bruce-Hulk’s fingers

Snapped.

The power blasted Thor backward, his back hitting the wall and nearly smashing through it. He was dazed for a long moment until he shook his head to clear it. He stood up, and saw he was first on his feet, but all the others were at least moving some part of their body. The gauntlet had shot off Bruce-Hulk’s hand, and lay on the floor exactly in the center of where the circle had stood.

And then the phones started ringing. 

It took weeks to sort the chaos out, to return people to their loved ones, explain what had happened. In that time, Thor returned to New Asgard.

Valkyrie was waiting for him at the town gates.

“It’s been a while,” she said. 

“It has,” he said. “I’m tired.”

“Come on up, there’s something you should see,” she said. 

He followed her up into the town. She had worked hard, and made this a place the Asgardians could call home. And they were here, the ones who Thanos had snapped away. 

And the others. The ones Thanos and his minions had killed on the ark ship.  _ Before _ . Before Thanos had killed Heimdall. 

Before Thanos had killed Loki. 

A flash of green off to his left, and his head snapped to the side. Nothing was there.

“They appeared just as the rest of them did,” Val said. “None of them had any explanation for where they are. And Heimdall won’t tell us.”

“Heimdall?” Thor asked. 

“Hello, Thor,” Heimdall’s deep voice sounded from the doorway of the cottage they were approaching.

“Heimdall!” Thor said, and rushed forward to embrace the man in a hug. Heimdall staggered under the impact, but thumped Thor on the back in return. 

“I see you’ve got no need for me,” Heimdall said, gesturing at Stormbreaker. “Summon the Bifrost all by yourself now, can you?”

“Not as well as you,” Thor said. “Besides, I’ve been thinking of hanging it up recently. I had a nice little farm going before I was so rudely interrupted to save the world again.”

Thor spent the rest of the evening reacquainting himself with his people. Val’s people. He was right, she was a better king than he was. He  _ could _ have been a good king, but he didn’t have to be. She was right for the role. Besides, maybe Asgard didn’t need a king. 

Maybe it was time to retire.

-

Valkyrie turned to say something to Thor, but he wasn’t there. Instead, the axe, Stormbreaker he had called it, rested against a fencepost. A scrap of red cloth tied to the handle fluttered in the wind. 

She smiled softly. He deserved peace after everything that had happened. And he would be back, eventually. 

Val turned back to her conversation, laughing at a bawdy comment. A whisper of wind brushed against her cheek, and she turned back.

Stormbreaker was gone, in its place a knife pinned a piece of green fabric over the red, stabbed into the wood of the fencepost, hilt still quivering. The air carried just the faintest hint of the sizzle of  _ seidr _ , and she swore she could hear a snippet of laughter. 

Val smiled again. 

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found anywhere a universe pockets @fireflyslove or @capsbum


End file.
